Warm Up
by Sarah1281
Summary: The Breakfast Club doesn't quite know how things will go at school so Monday morning before class they meet up again to try and buffer each other up in case things go badly since Claire still won't commit to anything. She's trying, though. They all are.
1. Before

Warm Up

Disclaimer: I do not own the Breakfast Club.

Monday morning was do or die. It was their first chance and, in a way, it was their only one. Sure, if they messed this up and ignored each other – or worse – on that first day they could always try again. Just the same, it would be harder as each day passed and they would have already set the tone for their post-detention relationships.

Monday was a big day and nobody quite knew how it was going to go so they had agreed to meet up before school.

Claire was the last one to show up.

"My parents," she announced, "are under the impression that I've been robbed."

"Why?" Andy asked.

Bender smirked and ran a finger over his new earring. "Because of this, you mean?"

Claire nodded. "It took them until the end of dinner yesterday to notice but once they did they were quite sure it was robbery."

"Imagine how long it would have taken them if it wasn't a diamond," Allison mused.

"Why didn't you just explain to them that Bender didn't steal it?" Brian asked. He paused. "You _didn't_ steal it, did you?"

Bender rolled his eyes. "Right, because the best thing to do with a stolen diamond is to flaunt it."

"I _did_ explain to my parents; that's why they think it's a robbery," Claire explained. "At first they just thought I lost it and started arguing about which of their fault it was that I lost something valuable."

"Your parents haven't even met me and they already hate me," Bender noticed. "This sounds like a very promising start to a getting-back-at-Daddy relationship."

"You sound like you've had experience," Andy noted.

Bender laughed. "Would that surprise you in the slightest?"

"It's not _just_ because of that," Claire insisted. "I mean, I can get back at them in a lot of ways without putting up with a guy I couldn't stand and there's a reason I didn't have a boyfriend when I came in on Saturday. The getting-back-at-Daddy thing is just an added bonus."

"Claire, you gave me a diamond earring before our first date. If you had any ulterior motives for doing so, I'm fine with that," Bender said with a shrug.

"That's actually why they thought it was robbery," Claire told them. "Apparently you're not supposed to start giving a guy jewelry until after he's at least met the parents. Well, actually my parents didn't seem to think you should ever give a guy jewelry but if you _were_ going to you were supposed to wait until they had met him."

"Why?" Brian asked.

"So they could tell if he were only in it for the diamond earrings or not," Allison said matter-of-factly. "Of course, if he was and they didn't realize it then they'd have no one to blame but themselves."

"So when will you be introducing me to your parents?" Bender asked innocently.

"That depends on two things," Claire said seriously.

"And those are?" Andy prompted.

"One, exactly how much I'm willing to risk giving them a heart attack by doing so so it would have to be a week when they were being especially difficult," Claire began. "And two, I strongly believe meeting the parents should come after the first date which, in turn, should come after it's established whether or not we're going to be able to do this."

"I still can't believe that you won't commit to acknowledging us or not," Andy complained, shaking his head.

"We can all say whatever we want," Allison pointed out. "But the way I see it, I'm the only one with no clique so I'm the only guarantee. We won't know how everyone else will react until it actually happens."

"You have us!" Andy said fiercely.

Allison nodded. "I know. But somehow I don't think you guys will disapprove of me being friends with…you guys. Even if we go in there and everything goes back to the way it was Friday."

"It won't," Brian promised her. "At least not with me. I guess that is the upside of not being popular, though; no one pressuring you to be an asshole."

Claire sighed. "You almost make that sound nice."

"I won't do it either," Andy swore.

Bender snorted. "You sure about that? You know that your little wrestling buddies won't approve and we all know what you did just last week to get their approval. Not talking to us is a lot less drastic than that."

"You know, I stopped by to see him yesterday," Brian said idly. "He still can't really sit down."

Andy looked at the ground. "I…that was then. I knew even before Saturday that that was a shitty thing to do and I don't think I would have done something like that again even if I hadn't met you guys."

"Still, it's hard to get into a completely new mindset almost overnight," Allison said gently.

Andy actually smiled. "Well, with all this lack of faith I'm taking it as a challenge. I _will_ stay friends with you guys. After all, it's not acceptable for me to lose remember?"

"That sounds like cheating," Bender remarked. "You are _such _an athlete."

Andy rolled his eyes. "So how about it, Claire?"

"I didn't say that I planned to ditch you guys or anything!" she insisted. "I just…don't know. I want to stick by you guys. I want you all to know that right now, whatever happens, I want to keep hanging out with you and I _definitely_ want to keep hanging out with him." She nodded Bender's way. "It's just that while no one would care if Andy and I started hanging out, the rest of you…I just don't know."

"If you want to talk to us then why the doubt?" Brian asked her.

Claire managed a wry smile. "I chronically give into peer pressure. It's such a cliché, I know, and I can't believe that I just used the words 'peer pressure' but there you have it. My friends – my other friends – aren't going to be happy with this. That's just a fact. When you guys are there I think I'll be fine but when you're not…I don't know. I hope not but I don't want to make any promises I don't know if I can keep."

"My turn to be clichéd," Allison announced. "Claire, if your friends were all jumping off a bridge and would make fun of you if you didn't, would you do it, too?"

Claire hesitated. "I want to say no…"

"Claire!" Andy exclaimed.

"What?" Claire said defensively. "I hate hypotheticals. It's all well and good to _say_ that you'll do the good and noble thing but who knows what you'll really do until you're actually there?"

"For most things I'd say you have a point but I'd hope you could at least make up your mind about _jumping off a bridge_," Andy replied.

"I'm sure they'd sell it better than you guys did," Claire sniffed.

Bender shook his head. "Even I wouldn't jump off a bridge and if you listen to Vernon I'm the self-destructive one."

"Why would we listen to him?" Allison asked.

"Point," Bender acknowledged.

Claire sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I'll try, okay? I can't guarantee anything but know if I don't then it's not because of you guys and I'll be thoroughly hating myself."

"While I'd like to think that you know that I _am_ hoping that you'll succeed, I have a question about if you don't," Bender told her.

"Go ahead," Claire said tolerantly.

"Can I still keep the earring?" Bender asked her. "Sentimental value and whatnot."

"Sentimental value that's ridiculously expensive," Claire said, rolling her eyes.

"I hadn't noticed," Bender claimed.

"I'm sorry but I have to say something," Brian said suddenly. "Allison, your hair is up. And you're actually wearing normal make-up. And your clothes aren't black!"

"I'm glad to see that my rad makeover skills won you over," Claire said with a pleased smile.

"I wouldn't say _that_ so much as…" Allison trailed off.

"As what?" Andy asked her.

"It's kind of silly," Allison demurred.

"Proven fact: people who get high together are allowed to say stupid things to each other," Bender said, nodding sagely. "But be careful that the person you're talking to isn't in a bad mood or it might end badly."

"Well…alright," Allison relented. "I first started dressing like that to make people notice me but now everyone's used to me wearing that so I figured that I'd get the same sort of attention if I dressed more conventionally. I'm not sure if I like it yet but I thought I'd at least try it for today."

"Well _I_ like it," Andy told her. "I have to admit, though, that I almost didn't recognize you on Saturday after Claire did the makeover despite the fact that there was only the five of us there."

"That's kind of what I'm going for," Allison told him.

"If nobody recognizes Allison then your friends actually might not have a problem with the two of you," Claire pointed out. "She's very pretty, after all."

"I wouldn't care if they did have a problem with it," Andy insisted. "I am done listening to them. It's never made me happy and nothing good is going to come from it."

"So you keep saying," Claire remarked. "We'll find out soon enough."

"Yes, we will," Andy said firmly.

"I think I could get behind that, actually," Allison said thoughtfully. "I could meet all your friends and they'd have no idea who I am. Then, in a couple of weeks or months when they're used to me I could suddenly just switch back and freak everybody out."

"A couple of week or months, huh?" Andy repeated, grinning. "I like the sound of that."

"How very interesting that some of us are planning things a bit more long-term," Bender said, seemingly casual. "What do you think, Claire?"

"Please. If I started planning things long-term, you'd run for the hills," Claire responded.

"I would not _run_," Bender disagreed. "I would…walk. Briskly, perhaps, but in a very dignified and manly manner."

"Whatever makes you feel better," Claire replied.

"And I wasn't talking about marriage or anything, just something a little more long-term than first period!" Bender exclaimed.

"I told you guys, I'm working on it!" Claire insisted.

"Don't worry, Claire, we'll help you stay strong," Brian said innocently.

"How so?" Claire asked suspiciously.

"We could always follow you around until you admitted that we were friends," Brian informed her. "Not all the time as we do have lives, too, but it could be fun."

"It might almost be _less_ of a scandal if you just admit that we're friends," Andy said, pretending to seriously consider the idea.

"I'm not sure if I should be grateful or slightly horrified," Claire confessed.

"Who says you have to choose?" Allison said, shrugging.

The first bell rang.

The five looked at each other silently for a moment before they grabbed their things and started to head to class.

"You know, I don't actually remember the last time I showed up to first period," Bender remarked. "I wonder if my teacher even knows who I am…"

"Hey, do you think it's kind of weird how we all became friends just because we had detention together, even if it was for a few hours?" Brian wondered aloud. "I mean, that kind of thing can't happen all the time, can it?"

"Probably not," Andy replied. "But you never know. There's got to be _some_ reason they call it the breakfast club."

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	2. After

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own the Breakfast Club.

After school let out for the day, the Breakfast Club – by some unspoken agreement – went over to Allison's house. Bender's house frankly wasn't safe and the others all had parents that might not approve of one or the other of them and would thus make things difficult but Allison knew that her parents wouldn't be home.

After they had dug through the cabinets to find something to eat, Andy turned to Brian. "So what was Vernon talking to you about earlier? Was it about Saturday?"

Brian looked uncomfortable. "Kind of, yeah."

"How is it 'kind of' about Saturday?" Bender demanded. "It either was or it wasn't."

"Why would he want to talk to you about that, anyway?" Claire asked curiously.

"Maybe he found out about all the pot," Allison suggested. "Or Bender's jailbreak. Or decided to be a responsible adult and get someone who brings a flare gun to school some counseling. I've gone for less."

Bender snorted. "Vernon? A responsible adult? Please."

"It wasn't any of those things," Brian assured them. "It was actually about the essay."

"Essay?" Andy asked blankly. "Oh, right. That. What's wrong? Did he have a problem with the fact that we only wrote one?"

"And by 'we' you mean me," Brian pointed out.

"Well, we did ask you," Claire replied. "You said that you were going to write your essay either way so it just made sense since none of us wanted to do it."

"He did ask about that," Brian confirmed. "I told him that there had been a soda spill earlier but we didn't have enough napkins so we had to use the essay paper."

"Why didn't we just go to the bathroom and get paper towels?" Claire asked.

Allison grinned. "We didn't have permission, of course."

Brian nodded. "Exactly. We only had enough paper left for one essay."

"Did he buy it?" Bender asked skeptically. "He never would have bought it from me."

"Bender, he's never going to believe _anything_ you say," Brian pointed out. "I'm different. Adults _want_ to believe me. They think I'm too nerdy to lie to them."

"If you have it, use it," Andy said approvingly. "And God knows you won't get much out of being nerdy in high school. No offense."

"None taken," Brian assured him. "Vernon didn't really seem to care all that much. I think he suspected that you all took advantage of me and made me write the essay. Besides, that was just busywork. The _real_ point of detention was sitting quietly in the library for hours on end and if we weren't writing the essay, he seems to think that's what we – aside from Bender – were doing."

"If he didn't care then why did he bother to talk to you about it at all?" Claire wanted to know.

"Actually, that wasn't really his problem," Brian corrected her. "He gave me back the essay, you see. Did any of you actually read it?"

There was a chorus of 'no's across the table.

Brian fished into his bag and pulled the somewhat-crumpled essay out before clearing his throat and starting to read. "Saturday, March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois. 60062. Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong...and what we did was wrong, but we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are. What do you care? You see us as you want to see us... in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed."

He took a deep breath and continued. "Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong...but we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us... In the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain and an athlete and a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club."

"Are we really calling ourselves that?" Andy asked. "I mean, that's just what they call the Saturday detentions. Are we _the_ Breakfast Club now?"

"Why not?" Allison asked him. "Do you see anyone else fighting for the name?"

"So what was his problem with that?" Claire asked. "Did he think you were attacking him or something?"

"He probably got worked up over the claim that we were all criminals," Bender theorized. "And secretly, he wasn't surprised. He may hate me more than he hates you but he really just doesn't like or trust teenagers."

"Why did he even become a teacher anyway?" Andy wondered.

Brian shrugged. "I guess he must not have always hated kids. He's been doing this _forever_. What his real issue was…is this." He passed Allison the essay.

"It says '207' on it," Allison revealed.

"207?" Andy asked blankly. "What, was he grading it? Out of what?"

"It's not a grade," Brian explained. "It's a word-count. It was supposed to be a thousand words and it was barely over two hundred."

"He can't really have expected us to sit there counting words!" Claire exclaimed, appalled.

"He could and he did," Brian said grimly. "Thought you can tell just by looking at it that it's not nearly long enough to be two hundred words."

Bender laughed. "Yeah, maybe _you_ can."

"So what did you do?" Allison inquired, tilting her head to the side and peering at him intently.

"Well, first I got all flustered because adults are always more likely to believe you if you act like you're horribly embarrassed," Brian told them. "Then I told him that I was sorry and that I thought he said a thousand _characters_."

"Did he _really_ buy that?" Bender couldn't believe it. "Seriously? Smart kids get away with _everything_."

"It wasn't quite so easy as that," Brian assured him. "He made me stand there while he counted them."

"He counted _all_ of the letters?" Andy asked, stunned. "Did he really have nothing better to do? He should have just let you go or given you another detention."

Brian shrugged. "Apparently he didn't have anything better to do, no. The trouble was that even the character count came in at 887."

"Oh no!" Claire exclaimed, covering her mouth. "What did you do?"

"I told him that I had been including spaces as characters which pushed it up to 1095," Brian said triumphantly.

Claire shook her head. "And you have such an honest face, too!"

"That's probably why he got away with it," Allison pointed out.

"So we're fine? No extra detention?" Andy asked anxiously. "Because I'm really not looking to waste another Saturday there, even with you guys."

"It's fine," Brian assured them.

"You know, Claire," Bender said conversationally. "I must admit that I'm a little surprised that you're still here with us. You were kind of cagey this morning."

"I'm kind of surprised, too," Claire admitted. "But in a good way. I really wasn't sure if I'd make it."

"It's only been one day," Allison pointed out.

"The backlash wasn't as bad as I feared," Claire replied. "I know that it's hardly over but I feel better about my chances than earlier."

"I don't know, Claire," Andy said thoughtfully. "I can't help think that today was easy. Tomorrow will be easy. They think you're going through a bad-boy phase. In a few weeks or months they're going to expect the phase to end and if it doesn't…well, things might get difficult."

"In a few weeks or months I think our friendship will be on much securer footing," Claire told them. "And so I promise that if I do end up cutting you all out of my life then I won't do it as readily as I could have dropped you today."

Bender rolled his eyes and gestured her way. "My girlfriend, ladies and gentlemen."

"I think that came out wrong…" Claire said slowly.

"We know what you mean," Andy assured her. "You don't want to end up lying to us if things get ugly later and I get that. My popularity comes from wrestling. As long as I wrestle I'll never _really_ be an outsider. Your popularity comes from…fickle…girl…stuff."

Claire laughed. "How very eloquent, Andy."

"Well how am I supposed to understand that kind of thing?" Andy demanded, coloring. "All I know is that it doesn't come from sex since you told us yesterday you're a virgin. Under duress, granted, but you did eventually tell us."

"But we also established that it might come from the absence of," Allison pointed out.

Claire put her hands over her ears. "We are _not_ talking about this again."

"That's what you said two days ago," Bender reminded her.

Claire nodded. "Right and we talked about it then so we don't have to talk about it now."

"Technically we didn't _have_ to talk about it then," Bender countered.

"You know, Claire, you're not the only one whose friends don't understand this," Brian spoke up. "Although my friends aren't horrible people so I don't have to worry about them shunning me."

"What do you mean?" Claire asked. "I'm not going to say that your friends look up to me again because that seemed to annoy you but why would they have a problem with it?"

"It's not like they have a _problem_, per se," Brian clarified. "They just think that you guys are failing something and need me to help tutor you. And that Andy might be threatening me given what happened last week."

Andy groaned. "Am I _never_ going to live that down?"

"You will eventually," Allison assured him. "I'd give it more than a week, though."

"What did you tell them?" Bender asked curiously.

"I assured them that I had no idea what you were and were not failing – except you're probably not failing shop but if you were I couldn't help – but that I was not tutoring any of you. They didn't believe me but it really doesn't matter," Brian explained, shrugging indifferently.

"To be honest, I'm not sure my friends even noticed that I was being friendly to you, Brian," Claire confessed.

"See? You were all worried and it turns out I don't even register in their world," Brian said faux-cheerfully.

"I'm not sure if it's that so much as the fact that they were a bit distracted by Bender," Claire replied.

Bender struck a pose. "Don't feel bad, Brian, that always happens when a woman has a choice between someone like me and…someone who isn't like me."

"And your friends don't care about Allison or I either?" Andy asked.

"My friends never would have cared about you," Claire reminded him. "And Allison's makeover ensured that they don't have a problem with her, either. Maybe in awhile when she switches back they'll start freaking out on me but I think I have awhile yet."

"Speaking of, how did that go for you?" Brian wanted to know. "Was it weird changing your image completely overnight?"

"It was, a little," Allison admitted. "But I still think people overreacted."

"How so?" Claire asked.

"No one seemed to recognize me," Allison explained. "There's this girl, Marcia, who sits next to me in history. We're always partners whenever the teacher assigns them and today, in history, she asked me if I was new."

"Clearly this Marcia is an idiot," Bender declared.

"She wasn't the only one," Allison confided. "Some of my teachers asked me if I was new, too. One of them actually marked me absent and I had to talk to him about it after class."

"That's kind of sad," Andy said, shaking his head.

Bender laughed. "Says the guy who didn't recognize her despite there only being the five of us there in the library."

"…I would have figured it out eventually even if she hadn't said something," Andy insisted.

"I think that the jury's still out on that one," Bender disagreed.

"But overall it went okay?" Claire asked her.

Allison shrugged. "Why shouldn't it go okay? Why would anybody have a problem with me if they don't actually seem to realize what I looked like last week?"

"You're _really_ going to enjoy the day you decide everyone's gotten used to you and you can freak them out, aren't you?" Brian asked knowingly.

Allison smirked. "Yep. And I plan to credit Claire with my inspiration."

"Don't you _dare_!" Claire exclaimed, half-laughing.

It was only the first day and there'd be plenty of more days and plenty of more tests but for now they had passed this one, the most important one, and so it looked like they'd be okay.

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